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Right Age for Parrot Training.

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Imran Ahmed » Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:09 am

Hey everyone.

I just bought an Alexander's parakeet (actually about 2months old now), hand fed him since the beginning. However i don't know when's the right age for him to begin training.

Any suggestions?
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby patdbunny » Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:09 am

What do you mean "train"? Every interaction is a training session - the bird learns something every time you interact with it.
Roz

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are only consequences. Robert G. Ingersoll
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Imran Ahmed » Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:48 pm

By training i mean teaching them to step up, roll over, step down, wave hi to people, etc etc....

I have tried teach my parrot some of the above tricks by offering him treat but he seems to forget. Beside this i think i don't have the right tools to teach Jeff and secondly i think he's too young :? . So hope you guys can help me out with this.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Kathleen » Sun Apr 17, 2011 11:30 pm

You can probably do some informal training which would be much less efficient. Like doing a recall fly to your hand to get some formula.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Imran Ahmed » Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:07 pm

thanks kathleen.

Great idea worked for me... It was easy and was amazing. Now jeff flies to my hand when i call his name or when he's not in a mood. I'll be posting a video soon :D. CHeers.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Michael » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:00 pm

Informal training can begin at any age. If you check back to my early blog posts,you'll find that I didn't start formal training with Truman right when I got him. Although he was fully weened and over 4 months old, he just wasn't food motivated yet and wanted to do nothing but play. So instead I used this time for him to explore new foods and objects and get used to lots of handling. Then I was able to use the preferences he developed as motivators for training. The exact age will of course drastically vary with species but it is very important NOT to withhold food for young growing parrots. Any rewards used for training should just be bonuses over normal feeding and not a withholding of food.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Imran Ahmed » Fri Apr 29, 2011 8:25 am

Wow Thanx a lot! I was withholding some quantity of treats or food that Jefee like so that i can use them particularly for training. No doubt he started screaming more after having his meals becuase initially i fed him banana's and other fruits right after his meals and just recently stopped doing so.

As for the age part, Jeff is almost a two months parakeet. He knows simple sit up, sit down and fly to me Commands. I've been talking to him so he can start listening and understanding which will make the task of vocalising easier for him later on. But he's not consistent with the sit up and sit down or fly to me command. I need to show him some treat before he does something!!! Why is this so???????
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Michael » Fri Apr 29, 2011 11:43 am

Because he's too young! This is why I said formal training requires the bird to mature and become goal oriented. Until then, the connection between doing something and getting treat is too much. If it sees the treat, it will come for it. But expecting it to do tricks for it is a bit much so early on.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby Imran Ahmed » Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:58 am

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhh i see now.... So till the time he matures completely i shouldn't be doing what im doing. I mean come to think of it, yes just like baby's these guys want good tasty treats for little things they can do. Though the concept of getting a treat for something they do (i.e. promoting the behaviour we like) is a general one and applies to humans as much as to animals but i never thought of it jointly with the concept of age, maturity and goal orientation. This makes lot more sense.

Beside, as promised, Here's the video in which Jeff flies to me on command :D. Please excuse my annoyed dressing.
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Re: Right Age for Parrot Training.

Postby JennyBink » Mon May 02, 2011 3:37 pm

Beautiful bird! Nice that he's flying to you already... :thumbsup:
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